The writing may have been on the wall for a while, but Intel on Tuesday acknowledged that sliding PC sales would force the company to go through a major restructuring. The world's biggest chipmaker said it will cut 12,000 jobs, or 11 percent of its global workforce, by the middle of next year.

The job cuts will help Intel shift its efforts to data centers serving customers in the cloud and to the billions of connected devices that make up the Internet of Things.

"These are not changes I take lightly," Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich wrote in an email to employees. "We are saying goodbye to colleagues who have played an important role in Intel's success. We are deeply committed to helping our employees through this transition and will do so with the utmost dignity and respect."

Intel said the cuts will save the company $750 million this year and a total $1.4 billion by mid-2017. It expects to pay about $1.2 billion in severance-related charges in the current quarter.